Saturday, May 15, 1999 Published at 09:55 GMT 10:55 UKUK PoliticsUN failing Kosovo refugees - MPs"UNHCR didn't cope at the beginning and it is still failing"A committee of MPs has condemned a United Nations' agency for its handling of the Kosovo refugee crisis.

They said the UN High Commission for Refugees had not coped well when the crisis first broke and was still failing to meet refugees' needs.

The International Development Committee report, published on Saturday, said: "UNHCR did not even make adequate preparations for the volume of refugees which it itself had predicted would flee from Kosovo.

It said: "If nothing is done, further humanitarian disasters will occur."

The report concluded: "No doubt the scale and speed of expulsions from Kosovo were unexpected.

"We nevertheless criticise the response of the UNHCR, which has so far failed
to provide effective leadership and co-ordination during the crisis.

"No sense that UNHCR has yet taken control of the situation"

"Not only must current humanitarian action be made more coherent, targeted and effective, there must be planning and commitment by the international community for the long-term future both of Kosovo and the whole region."

A UNHCR spokesman told the BBC: "We find the tone of
this report very regrettable and we regret even more the fact UNHCR was not given any chance to discuss the report with the committee itself.

"We believe the report is largely based on outdated information, incomplete information and in some cases inaccurate information."

"Further humanitarian disasters may occur"

On Tuesday the agency issued an emergency appeal for funds after it said it was running out of money.

A previous appeal had asked for $146m, but it received only half of this amount - all of which has been spent, it said.

By Friday the agency said it had received $10m in total from the US and Canada, and the EU had been "encouraging" about a further $20m.

Latest estimates from UNHCR put the number of people displaced from Kosovo at more than 748,000 since Nato bombing started on 24 March.

The UK, which has been criticised for its hesitation in taking in refugees, has now offered to take up to 1,000 refugees a week under the UNHCR evacuation programme.

The Northern Ireland Office has also said the province would host an unspecified number of refugees identified as priority cases by the UNHCR.